The Undergraduate Chair
FOOTBALL, the autumn destiny that settles over Hanover like the river mist on an October morning, holds the College in an even tighter grip now that only Princeton remains. Written only three hours after the lights of the gridgraph registered the defeat of Cornell, this is no time for a rational diagnosis of the sport. The gym was crowded; 1500 people, for a guess, watching a point of light move back and forth across the board, groaning when the Ithacan passes were completed, counting with monotonous exultation as the lights blinked out the Dartmouth yardage. De tails of the game are already on the streets in football extras; there is no need to repeat them here. But it was darned swell to watch that light move down the field in the final quarter.
An occasional source of wonder is the psychology of cheering at the gridgraph. Long "Indian yells" and "Go Dartmouths'" filling the gymnasium, and when a touchdown drive seemed to be underway came the rising crescendo of "Go! Go! Go!" It was tense enough at the Cornell game. What it must have been during the closing minutes of the Yale game can only be imagined, for most of us were in New Haven, thank God. But rumor has it that the chapel bells rang long and loud that night, and Sunday the charred remains of a bonfire were still heaped high on the campus, and there were stories of another successful Nugget rush.
Then Fall Houseparties and Columbia came to Hanover simultaneously, the former, which in some respects seems the least attractive of the three Dartmouth social week-ends, being enjoyed with rather suprising moderation all around. MidNovember is one of the less appealing seasons in Hanover. There is a certain tragic beauty in leafless elms, but it takes a rather definite effort to see it. Nevertheless, more than six hundred girls crowded into town and kept up the pretense of enjoying themselves until the 2.55 train left White River Sunday afternoon.
Student control again proved itself an effective means by which to reduce houseparty excesses. Fraternity committees, in pledging themselves to cooperate with Paleopitus is making each party a success, received a set of rules for which each house was held responsible. Rules concerned having delegates of the chapter and chaperones present at all times, refusing to allow men above the first floor during the week-end, having all drinking confined to one location, and insistence that the chapter accept full responsibility for the conduct of any member or guest admitted to the house. Paleopitus inspection, carried out by members working in pairs, would seem to be an
important test of the effectiveness of the system.
Most fraternities operated bars all night, which seems to be the most satisfactory way to control the drinking, while dormitory committees were responsible for order in the dorms and seeing that girls were out of the buildings before midnight. All in all, conditions are a far cry from the "no women, no liquor" days of three years ago, and a concensus of opinion would indicate that they are considerably improved.
As Hanover subsides into the comparatively calm interim between houseparties and Thanksgiving, a pleasant afterglow is caused by She Loves Me Not, the Players' well-chosen houseparty offering. It was attended by 1600 people, or about twice as many as saw the play a year ago, which is evidence that Warner Bentley correctly diagnosed the desires of Hanover's transient guests. With one Gerrie Worthing imported from New York to play the role of the girl who hid in a Princeton dormitory, the play was interspersed with just enough earthy humor, black panties, and remarks about our sister institutions of the Ivy League to keep the audience awake and laughing, always desirable on a week-end when dances last until four a.m.
Even more important than the routine task of putting on shows for houseparty guests is the Players' program of informal entertainment, lectures, discussions, and the presentation of student-written dramas, which The Dartmouth praises, for: "By attempting to make their organization a center of social as well as dramatic activity, the Players have taken a bold step forward in the development of social life at Dartmouth." The Dartmouth further hails it as a statement in concrete form of the broadening function of extra-curricular groups, and traces the development of undergraduate interest during the last ten years away from the Greek letter societies toward the day-by-day work of active campus organizations. The fraternity, which once represented
a cross-section of student activity, narrowed its field too much. It specialized in social activities. Now the service and work organizations are finding that they, too, are not well-rounded, and are branching out into the social field. The hope is expressed for a healthier situation at Dartmouth, where fraternity life will no longer be based upon the accident of pledging.
All of which brings up the fraternity situation once more. On the material side, Phi Gamma Delta has watched the brick walls of the new West Wheelock street house rise to an appreciable distance above the concrete foundations, and Gamma Delta Chi is reported to be about to demolish the rear of its present house so that work may be begun on the new. Any change in the spirit of Dartmouth fraternities is hard to tell. Our guess would be that most of the members are conscious that the chapters have functions greater than social ones, functions that must be performed if the houses are to survive in Hanover. Certainly the Interfraternity Council has exerted itself to impress on the houses the desirability of constructive action. Whether the members will feel sufficient individual responsibility to bring about any significant changes remains to be seen. It is at least understood that Dartmouth fraternities are on trial. Anything more must be conjecture for the present.
A partial answer came from the fraternities just before houseparties with the organization of an interfraternity treasurers' council. Quoting Briggs Austin '37, president of the organization: "We are starting from scratch to work out all the financial problems of the houses, to compile the results of our investigation, and to draw up recommendations from the various reports. Our goal is to find some means of enabling each treasurer to profit from the experiences of the other houses."
Politics were fanned into flame in Hanover, as everywhere else, by the election. In the face of a substantial undergraduate straw vote favoring Landon The Dartmouth came out for Roosevelt in no uncertain terms, while the faculty cast 282 ballots, 51% favoring the Democratic candidate, 41% the Republican. Undergraduate political clubs canvassed the college and accumulated batches of campaign propaganda, one single shipment from Republican Headquarters weighing 340-odd pounds. As The Dartmouth stuck to its guns and published a statement supporting Roosevelt signed by a large share of the faculty, election day came. While the snowstorm sifted down over the United States Dartmouth undergraduates dropped ballots into wooden boxes beside Commons and the Casque and Gauntlet House which gave Landon a 50% vote, Roosevelt 33%. An interesting sidelight was the fact that the most Democratic class was the Senior, which gave Landon a three vote majority, ranging down to the freshmen who gave him a 2 to 1 majority. It doesn't make much difference now.
Meanwhile the college year moves on. A thousand undergraduates gathered in Rollins Chapel for an Armistice Day program. The Junto announced a program of speakers and discussions, and Carl Sandburg in Webster deplored the man who has no time for poetry. Basketball practice is held nightly under Coach Cowles, and the Princeton game in a few days will mark the close of the football season. What impresses us most, however, with how fast the year moves .... more than snow flurries or Thanksigving, is that Green Key has already set a date and made plans for the annual Green Key Prom next spring.
IT'S JUST AS NERVE-WRACKING TO SIT ON THE BENCH A candid-camera study of what the Big Green reserves went through during the tensemoments in the Yale Bowl.
